[ BUSINESS BRIEFS ]

Staff writer, with Agencies

Fri, Nov 02, 2012 - Page 14

The TAIEX recovered earlier losses to end in positive territory yesterday as the electronics sector staged a rebound to push the broader market out of a slump, dealers said.

The market opened down 0.53 percent and moved to the day’s low in early morning trade as market sentiment remained cautious about the global economy, they said.

However, after the index moved closer to the 7,000 point mark, bargain hunters took advantage of low valuations on certain electronics heavyweights to send the index higher, they said.

The weighted index closed up 13.59 points, or 0.19 percent, at 7,179.64, on turnover of NT$72.78 billion (US$2.49 billion).

More workers on unpaid leave

The number of workers on unpaid leave has increased by 815 in the past two weeks, according to government statistics released yesterday.

The two-week increase from 2,040 to 2,855 is the biggest so far this year, according to the statistics which were released by the Council of Labor Affairs.

As of Wednesday, workers in 47 companies had reached agreements with their employers to take unpaid leave, the council said.

The statistics show that since August, the number of people on unpaid leave has continued to rise, showing that the situation of workers on furlough has worsened.

Bad loan ratio drops to 0.51%

Taiwan’s bad loan ratio dropped to 0.51 percent at the end of September, from 0.54 percent a month earlier, as the asset quality of domestic banks showed improvements, the Financial Supervisory Commission said yesterday.

Non-performing loans totaled NT$114.1 billion as of Sept. 30, down NT$5.6 billion from the end of August, while outstanding loans dropped NT$24.3 billion to NT$22.15 trillion, the commission said.

All 38 lenders kept their bad loan ratio below the 2 percent alert level with the average coverage ratio at 212.69 percent, 10.89 percentage points higher than a month earlier, the commission said.

Projector shipments see growth

Taiwan’s third-quarter projector shipments totaled 23,125 units, a mild growth of 1.7 percent quarter-on-quarter due to Taipei City Government’s purchases for local schools, but the figure was down 13.4 percent year-on-year, market research firm International Data Corp (IDC) said in a report.

IDC analyst Leon Kao (高振偉) said shipments might decrease this quarter, as the market is entering an off-season period amid a grim economic climate.